Compromise...Really?

I have been thinking about this word which we use quite often. Especially after I heard someone speak about it Last Sunday. Well it is a quality which is held in high regard by many who are considered wise and experienced. So much so that some people say that it is a way of life. And now I have a feeling I too am doing that and compromising what I want to say.

I wonder why people say that compromising is a must or what is even worse that it is a good thing.
Is life so strewn with difficulties that we can't take decisions that we want to? Or is it because we are looking for the easy way out of things?

Maybe I have got the usage of the word wrong and will now try to make clear the compromise I am talking about. The compromise I am talking about is the way people allow circumstances to take control of them and not actually make decisions. The dilutions of one's values for a percieved gain(be they material or emotional) is what I would call a compromise. Failing to voice out one's thoughts when one hears something that one thinks is wrong is also a form of compromise( and cowardice).

The fact that we bow to pressure of the moment rather than depend on the lessons which experience has taught us, is something which might seem innocuous but is a step towards the making of a person who is becoming what the person does not want to be. And then we know that what we have done is cowardly but then it becomes a habit. We go on compromising and we longer are the persons we once were.
I know that one can argue that we sometimes do change for the better but that is different because at that time we make a conscious decision and we take a different kind of decision because we feel and realise that the way we have been going isn't really right. It isn't just a flowing in the direction that the stream is taking us but thinking and deciding.
So what exactly am I railing against? I am not saying we shouldn't try to understand and comfort others but failing to respond in the way which you know is right is downright cowardly.I am not against giving in to the likes of a loved one but to give up your values and your whole bing at the time of making a choice is what bugs me.
When one also lets things shape him rather than the person shaping the things around the situation after sometime is one which would lead to trouble. Even though it appears to be an admirable thing to allow things to the way they are it just another case of us being afraid to the situation head on.

It is this compromising which has allowed our country to reach the present state where people who would otherwise consider themselves to be strict when it comes to morals turn a blind eye to corruption. A case in point being the use of fake documents to get things done. Another thing which doesn't seem to be a big deal many people even of my generation seem to have a different birthday for the register. What exactly are we trying to achieve?

I have more to say about that but I have a feeling that I have sidetracked a bit in corruption but compromising leads to corruption.

So why do I have so much against compromising? I think that should be bit obvious but still to state the obvious. At a personal level it leads to the sapping of the person who is being shaped. It leads to dwarfing of personalities which could have blossomed into things of even more beauty. One might still be a good person but the true potential is not realised because of the tendency not to go with the heart and the mind. And at the community level we can see for oursleves each day what compromise leads to.

I still haven't put out everything which was in my mind but at this point of time I think this is enough but probably there would be more later.( who cares? but I hope I keep blogging)

So ................UNCOMPROMISE........... BE YOUR TRUE SELF AND THE WAY YOU WANT YOUR TRUE SELF TO BE(Sounds cliched,I know but need to take the message to heart)

History? My view.

During the delightful days of my schooling which are now past by some five years, I always had a surprise for the wonderfully concerned individuals who used to pose the question, "What is your favourite subject?" My answer would pleasantly surprise a few while most people concerned about my future were horrified. I guess it would require little thinking on one's part to know that the answer was history.

Yes, history, which has, been defined by the dictionary as: the study of past events, the past, someone's or something's past; a narrative.

'What future does someone who wants to study the past have?' was the thought, which came to many who had taken to patronizing me. Even among friends and classmates I was viewed as an oddball quantity with eccentric tastes.

My experience, which I have narrated above, can be considered as indicative of our society's approach towards history. This leads me to ask two questions, which should be obvious. "Why is history so despised by both the students at school, and the parents and the benefactors of the children?" and more importantly "Is there any use in studying history?"

As a person who loves history from the very depths of the heart and once used to live, speak and breathe history, I would like to tackle the two questions not one by one but in a way that appeals to my 20-year-old brain.

To deal with this, I would like to expose the way in which history is dealt with in most schools by most teachers. It is taught as a series of dates, periods, wars, treaties, etc, which seem to have neither rhyme nor reason. History is taught by people who seem to take the dictionary too literally when it gives the definition of history. They treat history as just the past, they do not seem to know that history is the shaping of the present. The fact that only a proper knowledge of history gives rise to a mature understanding of the present is totally missing in the students and unfortunately even in the teachers.

This shows why history is generally disliked and despised, history which is just another subject to get marks in and be done away with.

History is treated as irrelevant and boring subject by both who teach it and those who are taught. The attitude which is prevalent is 'Who cares about what happened in the past?'.

This even ignores the oft-repeated cliché 'History repeats itself' and this piece of wisdom from Malcolm Muggeridge, "All news is old news happening to new people."

So there is on the basis of just these two observations, enough reason for people to care about studying history.

Then there are the reasons of pleasure, the aesthetic reasons will be known to the connoisseur.

One might put forward an objection that not just history but the deep study of any subject gives pleasure. However, I would argue as is my wont that the tingle one feels when he comes to know about certain events which directly affect his existence today, and the warmth that fills the heart when the stories of individual courage and bravery are read, the satisfaction and excitement that one feels when he perceives a principle used in a battle which can be part of his everyday strategy to deal with life, that feeling is unparalleled and quite unlike most feeling one gets when he learns something.

So, history can be studied and relished, but changes have to be brought about in the way it is taught and those changes can be best dealt with in another article or even better in a book.

But, the reader as a person can keep taking steps to take history to its rightful place.

A start which I doubt will continue for long

I never thought I would get around to doing this(having my own blog). I have always considered myself too lazy and I doubt the effort will last for any meaningful period of time.

However I hope that this would be an outlet for the many thoughts that I have. It has to be otherwise I don't see much of a future for this blog. However there are reasons why I think it would be difficult to sustain the momentum for long.

Well the main reason is the one which would get on nerves if you visit this place often enough and that is laziness.

There is another reason and that is one which I am grateful for. Well it goes something like this. I have got an unbelievably good circle of friends who listen to me for long periods of time and so far have rescued poor souls like you from having to read stuffy stuff like stuff you are reading right now. So now they will probably even have liten to me and also read the posts on the blog. I can imagine them asking me to kindly stop publishing such balderdash since they would not get away with not reading it.

So I am depending on you folks to keep me going(ofcourse you have no reason to) if you find the things posted here good enough to hold your attention.

And I guess this the best place to stop my harangue before I manage to put people off with my very first post.
Ohoh! I see the danger signs now itself.

Thats it for now folks.